Monday, May 14, 2007

Work today was busy, and I was getting irritated because...well there's so much to do and not enough time. And people were not always the most polite but considering some of them work 18 hour shifts, I guess that could be excused. I also get very grumpy when I'm tired. My own temper was starting to rise around 3 pm when I still had 4 consults on my plate and the local attending physician was happily doling out more.
Then I met Mr. V.
He was on one of my consults and I went in reluctantly, silently urging him to swallow everything I give him so I can clear him for DAT (diet as tolerated). I'd hear rumours about him too, from the nurses and the physio...about him being agitated and aggressive, kind of confused. He had hx (history) of drug abuse and was homeless and suicidal, had tried to bite the nurses that attended to him and kept on spitting at people, which is never good when you're Hep C +ve. You can imagine my state of mind when I walked into that room.
But as I introduced myself as the occupational therapist and started talking to him, I realized that we clicked. It was so tangible that you could almost hear the audible snap. You know when you see something in someone, something special? I saw something in this man. Past the aggression and the anxiety there was a decent human being. Quirky personality for sure, but workable. My supervisor says this, "He's the one at the wheel and I don't want to be in that car". Well, I think I can take the wheel.
Do you ever experience that? Some people are hard to love. We all know people like that, I bet someone pops to mind right away. But if you get past the outer crust, you find something, be it a depth of personality, a character trait, a common interest, that piques your appreciation. Sometimes they turn out to be people you never expected them to be.
My next move with Mr. V is to find out how someone who is wheelchair-bound is able to throw himself in front of a car.